EEVL: Four Search Engines and a Plaque

If the title of this column caused you to anticipate a new blockbuster featuring Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell, then I apologise. It's far more interesting than that!

Four Search Engines

Four new search engines from EEVL make it possible to search the content of over 250 free full-text ejournals in Engineering, Mathematics and Computing. EEVL's Ejournal Search Engines (EESE) are divided according to subject content.

The final one [4] searches the content of all 250 freely available full-text ejournals in all three subjects - engineering, mathematics and computing.

Much useful information is published in freely available ejournals. Trade journals, house journals and even some peer-reviewed scholarly journals are indexed by EESE, making this a very useful, if somewhat unusual set of services. It is unusual in that not only can articles be found via EESE, but also news items, product announcements, job opportunities, market and sector analyses, brief technical reports, component details, meeting announcements, conference reports, and more. This differentiates EESE from most other journal or ejournal indexes which tend to concentrate on indexing articles. On the other hand, it makes it a potentially valuable service for those looking for information in engineering, mathematics and computing, where vital information is very often published in non-article format.

Whilst most of the ejournals indexed are available as HTML web pages, some are PDF versions of print journals. Over 200,000 web pages have been indexed. Results are sorted through an internal mechanism, with relevance ranking given according to location and frequency of search terms. Because of the way that the data has been automatically harvested, it is unfortunately not easy to limit results by journal title or publication date.

A full list of ejournals covered is available [5]. While every effort has been made to index all the journals on this list, and while the indexes are regularly updated, occasionally information from a journal will be temporarily unavailable due to technical problems on the journal server at the time of indexing.

A link from the title leads to the full text of the item at the ejournal site. An interesting feature is the last element of the result above: "Gathered from: Quality Digest". This links to the record for the ejournal website in EEVL's Internet Resource Catalogue, as shown below.

Title: Quality DigestURL: http://www.qualitydigest.com/Description: Quality Digest is a monthly product providing information on what is happening in the quality field - services, news, products, buyers guides, articles and editorials. A current edition is published free online every month, and an archive file is available. A free, searchable directory of all North American ISO 9000 and QS-9000 registered companies is accessible. Links to quality-related sites are given.Keywords: quality management, quality control, TQM, total quality management, ISO 9000, QS-9000Resources: Journal - Full-textEngineering Classification: Engineering General->Engineering ManagementLocation: WorldCountry of Origin: United StatesLanguage: English

Examples of ejournals being indexed by EESE include:

Mechanical Engineering Magazine Online [6] - An online version of the print journal Mechanical Engineering, a publication of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). This publishes up to date industry and business news, along with selected feature stories from the print version.

Technology Today [8] - A multidisciplinary journal published three times a year by the Southwest Research Institute.

Archivum Mathematicum [9] - Published by Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, this is the electronic version of Archivum Mathematicum.

Linux Gazette [10] - Published by Linux Journal, this is a non-commercial, freely available publication dedicated to sharing ideas and discoveries about Linux.

British Asbestos Newsletter [11]. A quarterly publication financed by Jerome Consultants (an independent organisation specialising in the field of asbestos and tobacco research), focusing on asbestos-related news in Britain, but also including European, Australian and international events.

To complement EESE, access is provided from the home pages of the search engines to another joint service from EEVL and TradePub which provides printed trade publications free to qualified professionals [12].

EESE is a free service.

A Plaque

EEVL's marketing efforts were recognised at the CILIP Publicity & Publicity Group Conference in Grasmere, Cumbria on 11 November, where the EEVL OneStep promotional campaign was awarded 'Commended' in the PPRG Public Relations & Publicity Awards 2004, in the keenly contested 'Promotional Campaign with a budget over £500' category.

Shown above are those who received marketing awards at the PPRG Conference, along with Linda Smith (far left) PPRG Chair, Susan Peat, from Farries (second left) and Margaret Haines, President of CILIP (centre, rear). Roddy MacLeod (front, 2nd from right), EEVL Manager, received an engraved plaque on behalf of all of the team at EEVL which had worked on the OneStep campaign from November 2003 to July 2004.

Two services featured in the promotional campaign, OneStep Industry News [13] and OneStep Jobs [14]. The OneStep promotional campaign incorporated a mixture of traditional marketing methods plus online marketing techniques. More details are available on the JISC Web site [15].

EEVL's OneStep Promotional campaign will be the subject of a case study in a forthcoming book being edited by Elaina Norlin and Tiffini Travis, entitled "E-learning and business plans: national and international case studies" to be published by Scarecrow Press.

About EEVL

EEVL, the Internet guide to engineering, mathematics and computing, is a UK-based not-for-profit free guide. It was created and is run by a team of information specialists from Heriot Watt University, with input from a number of other universities in the UK, including the University of Birmingham and Cranfield University. EEVL provides academics, researchers, students, and anyone else looking for quality-assured information in engineering, mathematics and computing, with a centralised access point on the Internet.

EEVL, which is funded by JISC through the Resource Discovery Network (RDN), is available on the Web at: http://www.eevl.ac.uk/